The Darkwood

Chapter 16: The Four

Andy and Karen laid in the ash, sleeping for only a short period of time– just a matter of minutes. They were both awakened by Johnny's voice, almost as if he was standing right next to them, "Get up! Get up now! I know you're tired but you must leave here."

"Johnny?" Karen opened her eyes and looked around.

"Where are you Johnny?" Andy yelled, but no response came. As they looked around, they knew that there was no way Johnny had survived, or was anywhere near them. They could see almost to the horizon– barren landscape. They both had the same thought and stared down at the sphere they had been holding in their hands together. They looked at each other.

"You heard him too Karen?" Andy was frowning.

"Yes." She said, "He told us we had to get out of here– now."

"I'm so damn tired, but it suppose it's true. We have to go– this place will undoubtedly be swarming with army, or something very soon. Whatever that was we all just did, could not have

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gone unnoticed."

They both got to their feet and started moving as fast as they could– out of the crater, and over the fat that used to be The Darkwood. Every now and then, they would spot a hole in the ground where one of the "great trees" was ripped out of its section of dead ground; but they did not stop to investigate anything. They just kept going as fast as they possibly could.

When they made it to the edge of Red Rock– or what was Red Rock and had become the forest, they saw mostly piles of rubble. They heard something in the distance that confrmed Andy suspicions– helicopters were speeding in their direction. They had paused to listen to the helicopter sounds and Karen tried to start going again when Andy grabbed her arm, "Wait." He said, "Let's hide over here."

Andy pulled Karen into the remains of what was once the school. All that remained was a portion of the frst foor which had been made of brick, and two doorways. "We have to keep going, remember?" Karen said in a low voice once they were in the semi-darkness of the temporary shelter.

"Helicopters will be the frst wave– the quickest to arrive. They will be going to the center

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of the blast. We don't want to be seen by them, or they will radio back to their headquarters, or whatever, that we are within the blast site and we'll never get out. Let's wait for them to pass and then make a break for my car up on the edge of the road. It should be alright because I didn't drive too far into the bad-grass, so the grass should be gone, but the car should be there."

They waited. It only took a couple minutes before the helicopters were screaming overhead. Andy peeked out a little to see, and quickly pulled his head back inside. "Apache Helicopters. They think it was some kind of attack. No doubt armored columns will follow on the ground." They waited only about one minute after the helicopters had passed, and then ran as fast as they could in the direction of Andy's car. Since the terrain was barren, it was easy to run fat-out. Unimpeded by trees and long sharp grass, they made it to Andy's car in what seemed under fve minutes. Andy was right– his car was there, and still in good condition. They both jumped into the car, Andy turned over the engine, reversed back onto what was the road, and foored it.